The Frozen Trail update has completely reshuffled the ARC Raiders skill tree, moving perks between branches, adding fresh abilities like Bull Rush, Wall Run, Sprinting on Fumes, and Field Repair, and reworking how capstone slots unlock. With only ninety-one total points available and each top-tier skill locking in at thirty-one points per branch, you can't grab everything, which makes smart planning more important than ever. Here we are going to present the new best skill tree builds for Solo, PvE, and PvP play. Every point allocation is laid out step by step, including a starter route for free weekend players who are working with a smaller pool.
ARC Raiders 2.0 Best New Skill Trees Builds (Solo, PvE, PvP)
The three branches, Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival, still form the backbone of character progression. Each branch holds thirty-one points worth of top-tier skill investment, and the max available is ninety-one points, which comes from seventy-six at level seventy-five plus up to fifteen from Expeditions. Maxing an entire tree would require one hundred and thirty-eight points, so you're never close to filling everything.
The gating has also been loosened. Ten points in a branch opens the first choice node, thirty opens the first top slot, and forty opens the second top slot. One top skill costs thirty-one points in that branch, both top skills cost forty-one, and when you reach the second slot it only offers the two options you didn't pick first. Because of these numbers, you can only afford two top skills across the whole tree, so every build becomes an exercise in picking what to leave behind.
With the structure sorted, let's go over the specific perk shuffles and new additions Frozen Trail brings.
New Changes to the Skill Tree in Frozen Trail
A large portion of this overhaul is about putting perks where they thematically belong. Conditioning finally feels like a true conditioning tree instead of a scattered mix.
Perks moved into Conditioning: Stubborn Mule, Three Deep Breaths, Broad Shoulders (all from Survival), Vigorous Vaulter and Crawl Before You Walk (both from Mobility) now live in Conditioning. Proficient Pryer also moved higher up the Conditioning branch.
Perks moved into Mobility: Nimble Climber slides up the right-hand side, Fight or Flight shifts over from Conditioning, and Marathon Runner has been pushed much further up the tree.
Perks moved into Survival: Sturdy Ankles comes over from Mobility, Agile Croucher sits just above it, and Turtle Crawl, Gentle Pressure, and A Little Extra all migrate from Conditioning into Survival.
The point requirement for final top-tier perks has also dropped from thirty-six to thirty, which gives you more flexibility when planning. Now let's look at the brand-new perks introduced in this patch.
New Skills in Frozen Trail
Frozen Trail adds several fresh perks that open up playstyles the game didn't support before.
Vault and Carry (Conditioning): Lets you vault while holding a carryable item.
Weapon Bash (Conditioning top slot): Perform a melee attack while your weapon is equipped.
Bull Rush (Conditioning top slot): When your weapon is stowed, sprinting lets you knock players and ARC backwards.
Surefooted Scrambler (Mobility): Sprinting increases the time you can scramble up steep slopes, which also applies to staircases.
Ready to Roll (Mobility): The timing window for a recovery roll when falling is widened.
Right Back At It (Mobility): Reduces the time to get back up after a heavy landing.
Swift Start (Mobility): Increases the duration of high speed at the start of a sprint.
Wall Run (Mobility top slot): Sprinting at a wall lets you run up it for a few steps.
In the Flow (Mobility top slot): Chaining mobility moves while sprinting increases speed and reduces stamina cost.
Sprinting on Fumes (Mobility top slot): Stamina never fully drains while sprinting, though any action or damage cancels the skill.
Stylish Landing (Survival): You can use recovery roll from greater heights.
Field Repair (Survival top slot): Repair weapons, shields, and gadgets up to 30% durability during a raid.
With the new toys laid out, here are the three builds I'd actually run in Frozen Trail.
ARC Raiders Best Skill Tree Builds in New Frozen Trail Update
All three builds share the same opening twelve points in Mobility, and I'd put them down first no matter which playstyle you're committing to. The shared opener is one point in Youthful Lungs, five in Nimble Climber, five in Fight or Flight, and Vaults on Vaults on Vaults at the choice node so vaulting no longer costs stamina. Nimble Climber has to go first because Fight or Flight sits above it, and Fight or Flight gives you a stamina refund when hurt in combat on a cooldown, which pays off from your very first raid. None of the three builds removes those twelve points.
Best New Skill Tree for Solo
This build is built around going in alone, looting hard, and extracting heavy. The top skills are Sprinting on Fumes and Security Breach, so it's thirty-one in Mobility, thirty-one in Conditioning, and the leftover fourteen in Survival. What you sacrifice are the downed skills, which only matter when a teammate can revive you.
Mobility (31 points): After the shared twelve, fill Effortless Roll, Marathon Runner, and Swift Start, drop one point into Right Back At It (now sitting at twenty-eight), then spend the last two in Slip and Slide, Surefooted Scrambler, or Ready to Roll before capping with Sprinting on Fumes.
Conditioning (31 points): Fill the entire bottom section for thirteen points and take Mule's Gallop at the choice so you can sprint while over-encumbered. Up top it's Broad Shoulders, Loaded Arms, Speedy Mule, and Proficient Pryer, then Security Breach as the capstone.
Survival (14 points): In-round Crafting, Looter's Instincts, and Silent Scavenger to reach ten, Quick Roll at the choice, one point in Sturdy Ankles (purely to unlock the next node), and two in Agile Croucher.
You give up Road Warrior, Field Repair, Nomadic Crafting, Wall Run, and In the Flow. If you're running this in a duo and want revive utility, pull the ten from Speedy Mule and Proficient Pryer, and move them into Downed but Determined and Crawl Before You Walk. Conditioning still totals thirty-one.
Moving on from solo, here's how to adjust things when PvP fights are what you care about.
Best New Skill Tree for PvP
PvP keeps Sprinting on Fumes as the only top skill, but drops any top investment in Conditioning. The split is thirty-one Mobility, twenty-two Conditioning, and twenty-three Survival. Mobility is identical to the solo build point-for-point, so if you've already set that one up you only need to redo the other two.
Conditioning (22 points): Reach the choice node with Used to the Weight, five in Three Deep Breaths, one in Vigorous Vaulter, and four in Stubborn Mule. Take Back on Your Feet at the choice so you regenerate up to a limit when critically hurt. Then it's five each in Downed but Determined and Crawl Before You Walk.
Survival (23 points): Start the same as solo with In-round Crafting, then four in Looter's Instincts and five in Silent Scavenger before taking Quick Roll. From there, two points go in Stylish Landing (required to open Turtle Crawl) and five into Turtle Crawl itself for reduced damage while downed. Finish with one in Sturdy Ankles and four in Agile Croucher.
You lose Security Breach, Mule's Gallop, and Bull Rush. Bull Rush is the perk everyone wants to try, and if you have the full fifteen Expedition points, use them to grab it. Five in Broad Shoulders, one in Loaded Arms, one in Vault and Carry, and one more in Stubborn Mule gets you to thirty, Bull Rush becomes the thirty-first, and you still have six points left over.
Shifting gears to coordinated squad play, here's the build to run when ARC are your main opponents.
Best New Skill Tree for PvE
This one drops Sprinting on Fumes entirely in favor of two Conditioning and Survival capstones. The split is fourteen Mobility, thirty-one Conditioning for Security Breach, and thirty-one Survival for Road Warrior. It's designed for squads running long ARC-farming raids where ammo returns and raid-side recycling matter more than infinite sprint.
Mobility (14 points): Just the shared twelve plus two in Marathon Runner.
Conditioning (31 points): Begin like the PvP build but with three in Stubborn Mule instead of four, then take Mule's Gallop at the choice. From there, five each in Broad Shoulders, Downed but Determined, and Crawl Before You Walk, one in Loaded Arms, and three in Speedy Mule. Security Breach caps it off. Since you're grouped up, the downed skills earn their slots back.
Survival (31 points): Fill Looter's Instincts and Silent Scavenger, drop four in Sturdy Ankles and one in Agile Croucher after In-round Crafting, and take Quick Roll. Up top, run five each in Looter's Luck and Gentle Pressure, plus Traveling Tinkerer, A Little Extra, and one in Stylish Landing, totalling thirty. Road Warrior takes the capstone slot.
If broken shields and weapons are what keep killing your raids, swap Field Repair into the top slot instead, giving you repairs up to thirty percent durability during a raid. You can't fit Sprinting on Fumes back into this build even with fifteen Expedition points, since fourteen plus fifteen equals twenty-nine and Fumes needs thirty-one. The smarter spend is sticking with Survival. Four more in Stylish Landing and five in Turtle Crawl pushes you to forty, which opens the second top slot, letting you grab Field Repair alongside Road Warrior with five points still unspent.
If you jumped in on the free weekend, you won't have seventy-six points to work with, so prioritize your first twenty like this: the shared twelve first, then five in Marathon Runner and three in Effortless Roll. All twenty stay useful if you later go solo or PvP, and only six would need relocating for the PvE build. Avoid splitting points between branches early, because twenty across two trees can't even buy you both first-choice unlocks, which cost twenty-two.
Frozen Trail's reworked skill tree gives Raiders more identity per branch and more meaningful capstone choices than before. Pick two top perks that match your playstyle, lock in that shared twelve-point Mobility opener, and the rest of the tree falls into place around how you want to play Topside.